The Department of Homeland Security has launched a research project
to find ways to hack into gaming consoles to obtain sensitive
information about gamers stored on the devices.

One of the first contracts for the project was awarded last week to
Obscure Technologies, based in California, to devise a forensic tool
that will siphon data from the Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3 and other
consoles.

The $177,000 contract requires the company to create new hardware and
software tools that can extract data from gaming consoles, and to
purchase used gaming consoles outside the U.S. to determine what data
was left on them by previous owners that can be extracted, including
information about communications with other gamers, according to Foreign Policy magazine.